Kami is a part of Zach’s paid private Facebook community and asked him to join us and share some of the things that he is doing to maintain a thriving business using Facebook, and how he uses this platform to build a converting community on Facebook.

Question: Why do you like Facebook as a marketing tool?

Answer: Honestly, Facebook is one of the best platforms out there right now from both from an advertising and promotion perspective and that’s because so many people are there. The last time I looked it was like over a billion people, which is a healthy chunk of the world’s population. Especially with most people that are listening to this show, the demographic on Facebook is still really strong and most people are still using it as an avenue for building their business, and as an avenue to connect. Right now is a time where people are craving more connection. As marketers, we need to connect with people first, product second, and Facebook is one of the most logical choices out there to do this.

Question: How do you get people to follow you on Facebook? How do you build a community there?

Answer: I think it’s a twofold question. I think the first thing is how do you get people to follow you? I’m one who’s not afraid to spend a little bit of money on advertising. Right now it’s dirt cheap to advertise on Facebook and while advertising costs are going up, it’s still cheaper than it is anywhere else.

The easiest way to get people to follow you is to be in front of them with a really powerful message. And the easiest way to be in front of them with a really powerful message is to pony up a few bucks and throw it Facebook’s way.

Now that being said, if there’s this other side of things, which is really engaging and consistent content is going to help you engage with people more. And I don’t mean consistent in like ‘you need to be posting on Facebook five times a day.’

You need to get in front of them where they are and I think advertising is the easiest way to do that. You need to use engaging content with them and then you need to consistently put new content in front of them so that they continue to connect with you.

Question: How do you get people to convert to a customer from Facebook?

Answer: A lot of people think if they have an offer and just put it in front of people they should be able to get customers. And that’s not really how it works. To be completely honest it’s really never worked that way. If you create the continuity of moving someone from an audience member, to a lead, to a customer, you can bring somebody into your fold as a buyer from Facebook.

First, you have to get in front of people with something they care about. Generally speaking, that’s free content. That can be a PDF opt-in, a blog post, or a webinar. If you drive people right to an opt-in or a webinar from Facebook, the ads are going to be a little more expensive. Once they opt-in, they are no longer an audience member, they are a lead.

The difference between an audience member and a lead is that they’ve expressed interest in what you have to offer.

Once we know they care about what you have to offer, you can follow up with them in a variety of ways.

One way is live video. Facebook says a live video is six times more engaging than regular video content, and video content is already the most engaging piece of content on Facebook. You can also follow up with standardized email marketing. Email marketing is not dead. It continues to work. And then of course, standardized follow-up sales like a webinar, a five-day challenge, an email promotion or a sale.

Question: What tools are you using?

Answer: We love Leadpages and have been using them for years. We use InfusionSoft as a follow-up software. InfusionSoft is a little advanced. I usually don’t recommend it until you’ve probably got around five to ten thousand contacts and a pretty stable business to invest in.

It comes with a price tag of about $300 a month, so I always like to tell people that’s what I’m using but I also wasn’t using it my first six months. I wasn’t on InfusionSoft from day one, I started with AWeber, so I’ve got Leadpages that really helps me capture leads and then I’ve got an autoresponder that helps me with follow up with my leads via email.

Infusionsoft is very comparable to say Convertkit or AWeber.

Question: How are you using the various features of Facebook to nurture the community you are building?

Answer: There are two primary ways we use the features on Facebook. The first one is to create compelling content and pay to put it in front of our audience. I think that this is a mindset shift that is frustrating to the newer marketer who wonders why they have to pay to get their content in front of someone who already likes their page. It comes back to what we were just talking about, which is the fact that being seen starts the process of turning an audience member into a buyer.

Anytime we put a really compelling piece of content that’s tied to a larger strategy, I’m not just going to throw the podcast on my Facebook page and hope that it reaches my audience organically. I’m also going to pay Facebook maybe $50 to $100. I have an audience of about 20,000 on my page for reference, so if you have a smaller audience you can start with $5 to $10 but I’m going to spend that money to literally push that podcast out in front of my existing audience. When they arrive, I will have created a content upgrade and that’s designed to get us new leads.

By doing this, we nurture people and get them caring about my content. More importantly, it creates what we call the exposure effect. The exposure effect is a psychology term that basically means the more somebody sees you the more they trust you. It does not matter where, how, or in what context people see you, they will inherently trust you more just for seeing you.

So, your question about how do I nurture people, I make sure they’re seeing my content because if they’re seeing quality content and they’re seeing it on a consistent basis, they’ll trust me more. Second thing, I have a Facebook community.

Anytime somebody joins our email list, we invite them to join our Facebook group. So over time, we’ve learned that by bringing new people into this private community they’re more likely to care about our content. They’re more likely to be the people that become buyers, or join our webinars, or engage with our content. We are building a hub where people who care about us and our content can come and engage.

It’s just a really powerful tool that we use.

Question: Since this is a hot topic right now, how are you handling the changes to the Facebook algorithm?

Answer: So a lot of people are freaking out about the new algorithm, but the reality is I don’t think it’s anything to stress about. If you’ve been using Facebook in the last two to three years, you’ve already seen a downtick in organic engagement.

Facebook has come right out and said that organic engagement is going to be lower for brands and pages. I highly recommend you read the press release. I did a podcast where I read between the lines of the press release. Facebook is outright saying that engaging posts will get more reach and that video is six times more engaging content. That’s Facebook’s way of saying do more live video because that’s what we want on our platform.

They’re saying that brands who create real engagement will see less of an impact on their organic reach then brands that don’t and that pages that foster fake engagement–called engagement baiting–is not going to work anymore.

In my opinion, marketers need to adopt a three-fold strategy:

Leverage live video. This is something I kind of started my brand on and moved away from because we didn’t need it as much. It’s a very high demand activity in your business. If I’m doing a live video, there’s nothing else I can be doing at that time. It requires all my creative time and attention.

Create content that engages. What that means is not everything you put out can be a link. You have to ask questions, you have to engage with people, you have to share. What we’re finding, which is working relatively well for us, is sometimes I’ll ask a question on Instagram and share it over on Facebook. If you don’t know, Facebook and Instagram are owned by the same company so they tend to like when you use those internal features.

Leverage advertising. Facebook is saying in plain English you’re not going to reach as many people for free. If we want to reach the same amount of people we should be willing to pay. I’ve always said you do not need to go crazy spending money on advertising. I think people hear this and they’re like “this is just Facebook’s way of making more money” and my response is, “Who cares?” Because no matter how much you speculate why the algorithm is changing or what it means for you, at the end of the day it’s changing with or without you. Facebook is not a democracy, it’s a business and so we have to play their game.

Question: Besides your monthly marketing playbook, is there something you’re working on that we can highlight?

Answer: The monthly marketing playbook is really fun. It’s a monetized community. Members pay $27 a month and every month we release a marketing playbook designed to generate more leads or sales in your business. What we find is that when people pay, they play.

We just launched it at the end of December, but we found by using that community we get really cool results for people which is always a big plus. If it sounds of interest to you, you can head over to monthlyplaybook.com, get yourself on the waitlist for when we reopen.

We also have a free five-day mini-course on Facebook ads. It walks you through how to write an ad, target an ad, create a really simple image, and essentially get your first ads up and running to build your email list. Check it out at heartsoulhustle.com/fbads.

About Zach Spuckler, Heart Soul and Hustle

Zach Spuckler is an online business strategist.

In under a year, he built a 6-figure business that allowed him to leave school, quit his job, and become a full-time entrepreneur;

How to reach Kami:

If you’d like to learn more about Kami Huyse, visit her website at www.zoeticamedia.com. You can contact her by email at kami@zoeticamedia.com or tweet to @kamichat.

How to reach Madalyn:

If you’d like to learn more about Madalyn Sklar, visit her website at www.madalynsklar.com. You can contact her by email at madalyn@madalynsklar.com or tweet to @MadalynSklar.

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